The AT guidebook can be a spiteful, evil thing at times. It said the Pizza Hut down in Troutville had an all you can eat buffet. It failed to mention that it was only a salad bar. A hungry hiker rarely fantasizes about all the lettuce they can eat. I've never heard a hiker say, "Man, when I get to the next town I'm gonna eat so much romaine." You might hear them chanting, "Pizza, pizza, pizza," with each step down a mountain.

We need 5000 calories a day. Never will a passionate word be uttered about shaved carrots, chopped tomatoes, or cucumber slices. Once I heard a hiker exclaim that a salad bar had real bacon bits, but that doesn't count because he was eating them plain with a spoon.

It's okay though. I climbed back into the mountains to what is really important on this trip. The one thing that will always silence the thoughts of fatty foods or the sometimes mindless march forward, when the events of the day put you in the right place at the right time for a sunset with a view high above the valley floor.